Month: February 2024

By EILEEN NG Associated Press KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s Pardons Board said Friday it has reduced ex-Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 12-year jail sentence by half and sharply cut a fine, less than two years into his sentence from a corruption case linked to the theft of billions of dollars from state coffers. With

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Authorities in Norway have issued several landslide and avalanche warnings for the southern part of the country as it continues to get hammered by bad weather. Officials said on Friday that roads in the north also might have to be closed at short notice. Some 200 passengers slept inside the airport

By ELAINE KURTENBACH AP Business Writer BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese markets have retreated despite a fresh flurry of measures to help prop up the ailing property sector. Shanghai’s Composite index dropped 1.5% after dipping sharply lower earlier in the afternoon. The retreat came after the International Monetary Fund forecast that China’s economy will expand at

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have arrested seven people on suspicion of selling information to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad. The suspects, who allegedly passed details to Mossad via private detectives, were detained in a joint operation with Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization on Friday. The Anadolu news agency says police anti-terror

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — More than 100 Rohingya immigrants have escaped from a detention center in Malaysia after a protest. Immigration Department Director-General Ruslin Jusoh says one of the 131 detainees who escaped from a center in Perak state Thursday night was hit by a car and killed. He said nearly 400 people were

By MIKE CORDER Associated Press THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Nations’ top court says it has jurisdiction to rule on a request by Ukraine for a declaration that Kyiv is not responsible for genocide. The ruling Friday comes in the preliminary phase of a case filed by Ukraine alleging that Moscow used trumped-up

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER and LINLEY SANDERS Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Half of U.S. adults say Israel’s 15-week-old military campaign in Gaza has “gone too far,” a finding driven mainly by growing disapproval among Republicans and political independents, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Broadly, the poll

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) — Big Tech stocks once again carried Wall Street to a record Friday, even though the majority of stocks fell amid worries about the downside of a hot economy. Big gains for Meta Platforms and Amazon helped drive the S&P 500 index up by 1.1% to

By STEVE PEOPLES and JAMES POLLARD Associated Press COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — For months, the underdog in the presidential primary refused to concede defeat. He fought hard in state after state, even as the front-runner amassed a delegate advantage that would be virtually impossible to overcome. The extended feud between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton

By MARK THIESSEN and BECKY BOHRER Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Much of Alaska has plunged into a deep freeze, with temperatures well below zero. Anchorage has seen some of its coldest temperatures in years and the mayor opened warming facilities for people who are homeless or don’t have reliable heating. To the south

By JOSH FUNK and PATRICK ORSAGOS Associated Press EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — Daily life largely returned to normal for most of the nearly 5,000 residents of East Palestine, Ohio, months after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spilled a cocktail of hazardous chemicals that caught fire a year ago, but the worries and fears

By SEUNG MIN KIM Associated Press DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden joined grieving families at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer of the three American service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan last weekend. During the 15-minute transfer, the president stood

By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — If Taylor Swift is jetting from her upcoming Tokyo concert to Las Vegas to see boyfriend Travis Kelce play in the Super Bowl the next day, she’d better already have a place to park her plane. Even the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., seems to be

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand police are investigating alleged death threats made against referees involved the Rugby World Cup in France last year.  The acting director of the National Criminal Investigations Group, Detective Inspector Stuart Mills, has confirmed three complaints have been received from World Rugby about death threats against referees and match

By JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Almost immediately after he walked into the Oval Office on his first day as president, Joe Biden began rolling back his predecessor’s immigration policies, which he had assailed throughout the 2020 campaign as harsh and inhumane. A lot has changed in three years. Biden, now

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — On Friday, the National Press Club is offering solace — and a free meal — by giving recently laid-off journalists tacos in recognition of a brutal stretch that seems to offer bad news daily for an already struggling industry. For anyone who works in the

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FERNANDA PESCE Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — From its inception, the newscast La Verdrag was meant to radically transform the way the LGBTQ+ community are viewed in Mexican society. First broadcast in October, the program goes against the grain in a highly “macho” country where nearly 4 in every 5

By JULIE WATSON and HAVEN DALEY Associated Press SAN DIEGO (AP) — Rising seas and frequent storms are taking their toll on California’s iconic public piers and raising questions about the future of the landmarks. Repairs have climbed into the millions in recent years for many communities, and more storms are expected to bring more

By MEGAN JANETSKY and FERNANDA PESCE Associated Press MEXICO CITY (AP) — Guillermo Barraza buzzes with a nervous energy as he watches himself transform. Hands delicately paint stripes of bright pink eyeshadow onto Barraza’s angular face as newscasters and makeup crews bustle around him. Tonight, in a small studio set in the heart of Mexico

By CURT ANDERSON and BEATRICE DUPUY Associated Press CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a pilot and two people on the ground died when a small plane crashed into a Florida mobile home park. The Federal Aviation Administration says the pilot was flying alone in the single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza, and reported engine failure shortly before

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP) — Punxsutawney Phil predicted an early spring on an overcast Friday morning at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania, the scene of the largest and best-known Groundhog Day celebration in the United States. The annual event is a tongue-in-cheek ritual in which Phil’s handlers, members of a club with roots in the late 19th

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s employers delivered a stunning burst of hiring to begin 2024, adding 353,000 jobs in January in the latest sign of the economy’s continuing ability to shrug off the highest interest rates in two decades. Friday’s government report showed that last month’s job gain —